Buried in last place and still yet to win a series at home, the Diamondbacks made a stunning hire on Saturday, naming Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa to the newly created position of chief baseball officer and giving him free rein to run the organization's baseball operations department.

What this specifically means for the franchise — or for the futures of General Manager Kevin Towers and manager Kirk Gibson — remains to be seen; La Russa talked more about big-picture concepts than specifics when asked about his plans for the short term and the long term.

But in La Russa, the Diamondbacks have added someone said to possess one of the brighter minds in the game — and perhaps in the sport's history. In 33 seasons, La Russa is the third-winningest manager of all time. He won three World Series, six league championships and 12 division titles before retiring after the 2011 season, and he'll be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 27.

La Russa, 69, who recently has been working in various capacities with Major League Baseball, had been looking for opportunities to latch on with a team and was a candidate for the Seattle Mariners' club presidency earlier this year. He said it wasn't managing he missed but the competition, and he said he could feel the difference when he woke up on Saturday morning.

"This morning, for the first time, boy, I felt my gut starting to churn," La Russa said. "You realize this is going to happen, and you're back in the competitive action. That's all I've known for 50 years."

The Diamondbacks were thrilled to be able to add someone of La Russa's pedigree, but the move clearly was spurred by the team's disappointing start. Despite a franchise record payroll of more than $110 million, the Diamondbacks entered Saturday's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at 16-28 and were 111/2 games out of first place in the National League West. They finished at exactly .500 in each of the past two seasons.

"We have a tough situation that he's entering," Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick said. "We don't expect any one person can change this overnight. It took us a while to get where we are, it'll take us a while to change it. We have the right guy at the right time, and we're really delighted and honored to have Tony join us."

Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall said the organization needs to add talent throughout, particularly on the pitching staff, which has underperformed both in the rotation and the bullpen. He also said the club's prospect depth has been drained.

"I think a few years ago we were positioned well with prospects," Hall said. "We made moves —and it's not just KT, it's all of us — (a) let's try to win it now mentality."

Hall said he and Kendrick began to consider making changes about three weeks ago. He said he had conversations with "a few" candidates, La Russa among them, some for the same sort of high-ranking position as La Russa, others for the general manager's job. At the time, Hall told both Towers and Gibson that their positions were being evaluated. They still are.

"They know it's an evaluation period," Hall said. "Tony has a lot of work, a lot of assessing to do."

He isn't planning to travel with the Diamondbacks to St. Louis this week, but he said he wanted to see all of the organization's minor-league affiliates as well as possibly see some of the players the team is considering in next month's draft.

La Russa will be overseeing Towers and will report to Hall. There was no sense as to how long the evaluation process might take, but it sounds like La Russa will have the ability to do whatever he sees fit.

"He has the freedom to make the decisions that he thinks are right," Kendrick said. "There's no limitation to his authority. ... There's not an economic stress test. If we need to buy out contracts because he thinks that's something we need to do, then we'll do that."

Prior to the season, both Towers and Gibson were given unspecified contract extensions, described by the team only as extending "beyond the 2014 season." Similarly, La Russa's deal has been described only as a "multi-year" agreement.

This isn't the first time Towers has been through this sort of situation. In 2005, while he was GM of the Padres, Sandy Alderson, a former GM, was brought in above him as the club's CEO. He said he'll continue to go about his job the same way he always has.

"But I've been in the game long enough to know that these things happen," Towers said. "I'm just happy that at least for the time being, I'll still be a part of the organization."

Zach Buchanan contributed to this report.

Tony La Russa introduces as Chief Baseball Officer:

Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick and Tony La Russa get up after a press conference at Chase Field on Saturday, May 17, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Arizona Diamondbacks have appointed 2014 Hall of Fame inductee and 53-year baseball veteran Tony La Russa as Chief Baseball Officer. (Photo: Stacie Scott/azcentral sports)

Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick and Tony La Russa get up after a press conference at Chase Field on Saturday, May 17, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Arizona Diamondbacks have appointed 2014 Hall of Fame inductee and 53-year baseball veteran Tony La Russa as Chief Baseball Officer. (Photo: Stacie Scott/azcentral sports)

Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick and Tony La Russa get up after a press conference at Chase Field on Saturday, May 17, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Arizona Diamondbacks have appointed 2014 Hall of Fame inductee and 53-year baseball veteran Tony La Russa as Chief Baseball Officer. (Photo: Stacie Scott/azcentral sports)

Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick and Tony La Russa get up after a press conference at Chase Field on Saturday, May 17, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Arizona Diamondbacks have appointed 2014 Hall of Fame inductee and 53-year baseball veteran Tony La Russa as Chief Baseball Officer. (Photo: Stacie Scott/azcentral sports)

Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick and Tony La Russa get up after a press conference at Chase Field on Saturday, May 17, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Arizona Diamondbacks have appointed 2014 Hall of Fame inductee and 53-year baseball veteran Tony La Russa as Chief Baseball Officer. (Photo: Stacie Scott/azcentral sports)

Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick and Tony La Russa get up after a press conference at Chase Field on Saturday, May 17, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Arizona Diamondbacks have appointed 2014 Hall of Fame inductee and 53-year baseball veteran Tony La Russa as Chief Baseball Officer. (Photo: Stacie Scott/azcentral sports)

Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick and Tony La Russa get up after a press conference at Chase Field on Saturday, May 17, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Arizona Diamondbacks have appointed 2014 Hall of Fame inductee and 53-year baseball veteran Tony La Russa as Chief Baseball Officer. (Photo: Stacie Scott/azcentral sports)

Notable: Collmenter gave up four runs in five innings on Monday against the Nationals. In six starts since moving into the rotation, Collmenter has a 4.28 ERA in 33 2/3 innings. … Haren has posted quality starts in seven of his eight outings this season, including against the Marlins last week, when he went seven innings and allowed three runs in a 6-5 victory.